In December 2013, News Corp Australia’s climate science mangler-in-chief was delighting in the predicament of Professor Chris Turney, who had led an exhibition to Antarctica but whose ship had become stuck in sea ice.

Screaming of a “media cover-up” the Bolt was unhappy at the media coverage.

Bolt loved to write about Antarctica’s sea ice. It was the perfect rhetorical response to stories about the disappearing sea ice in the Arctic.

Bolt almost never mentioned the ice in Antarctica that’s on the land – the ice sheets – which are melting from underneath and have the potential to deliver several metres worth of sea level rise. The ice that scientists are really worried about, Bolt didn’t talk about much.

So is Antarctica still a Bolt favourite? Not so much.

A Google search of Bolt’s blog from the past six months suggests he has not once managed to type that “A” word that used to be such a favourite.

So what’s changed? Well, in 2016 the amount of ice covering the oceans that fringe the Antarctic continent sort of, fell off a cliff.

The melt season has just finished in Antarctica, and the amount of sea ice left behind was likely at its lowest on record (a record that only goes back to 1979 and the start of the satellite era).

So now that the story doesn’t fit neatly into Bolt’s worldview, he’s decided it’s best to ignore it rather than have an honest discussion about it.

So why has the sea ice dropped away in Antarctica? That’s a live question.

At the time, when sea ice down there was showing near record levels, the ACE CRC report explained this was likely short-lived and that melting glaciers, changes in snowfall and rising temperatures would all play a role in the future.

In the latest episode of Positive Feedback, I spoke to Dr Nerilie Abram, of Australian National University about the changes going on in Antarctica and the challenges in working out what’s behind it all.

Take a listen and subscribe at SoundCloud or iTunes (and that includes you Andrew).